First South Yorkshire
First South Yorkshire (FSY), a division of FirstGroup, are a bus operator based in Rotherham, South Yorkshire that provide bus services mainly in the large city of Sheffield, as well as across the greater South Yorkshire, north Lincolnshire, north east Derbyshire and Peak District area. Their headquarters, shared with First York, is located at FSY's Midland Road depot in Rotherham, and together the two companies make up the management company First South and North Yorkshire. Since 2013, First South Yorkshire has included the sub-brands First Doncaster, First Rotherham, First Sheffield and First X78. History First South Yorkshire were formed in 1998 as First Mainline, although they can trace their roots back to 1989 when South Yorkshire Transport introduced the Mainline brand for all of their services, with buses running branded as either Sheffield Mainline, Rotherham Mainline or Doncaster Mainline depending on the locality. In 1993, Mainline were sold in a management buyout and became an independent company; two years later, FirstGroup purchased a 20% stake in the company from rivals Stagecoach. In 1998, FirstGroup purchased the remaining 80% of Mainline, renaming them to First Mainline. From 2000, the iconic red and yellow Mainline livery was dropped with buses beginning to be repainted into First corporate livery; this coincided with the company being renamed First South Yorkshire that same year. Since 2013, FirstGroup's new Olympia livery has been introduced onto FSY's fleet. First South Yorkshire's Olive Grove depot in Sheffield is the largest single bus depot in Europe in terms of both area and the number of buses based there, being slightly larger than First Glasgow's Larkfield depot. In January 2013, Olive Grove depot received the first Wright StreetLite Max ever built, numbered 47402 (registration LK62FUJ, since renumbered 63039). This successful trial resulted in the order of dozens more to replace aging Wright Renowns. This trial was followed in December 2014 by Olive Grove receving the first Wright StreetDeck ever built, 35101 (SN64CSF). Special buses Heritage liveries Since 2013, First South Yorkshire have celebrated South Yorkshire's transport heritage by repainting five Wright Eclipse Gemini-bodied Volvo B9TLs into heritage colour schemes, as explained below. *37229 (3910WE) - Sheffield Corporation Transport cream and blue (60 years) *37230 (YN08LCK) - Doncaster Corporation red with purple loopy stripe (named Phil Wilson) *37231 (YN08LCL) - Rotherham Corporation blue and cream (named Peter Drury) *37524 (YN58ETR) - South Yorkshire Transport cream and brown *37528 (YN58ETX) - Sheffield Tramways cream and black (100 years) Named buses First South Yorkshire currently have three named buses, all in memory of former drivers. *37230 Phil Wilson (YN08LCK) *37231 Peter Drury (YN08LCL) *63002 Derek Russell (SM13NDK) Other special buses In January 2013, Olive Grove depot received LK62FUJ, the first Wright StreetLite Max ever built, and it was numbered 47402. After several months on the 51 on trial, dozens more StreetLites were ordered by the company. When they began to arrive in August 2013, 47402 was renumbered 63039 and transferred to Rotherham depot alongside 63038, 63040 and 63041 (formerly 47401, 47403 and 47404) which had been transferred in from other areas of the country including Bristol, Colchester and Manchester. The four older StreetLites at Rotherham were for work on their 69 route between Rotherham and Sheffield. In December 2014, Olive Grove received SN64CSF, the first Wright StreetDeck ever built, and it was numbered 35101. It has yet to enter service as of January 2015, but is expected to be used on either the 51 or X78. Fleet As of December 2014, First South Yorkshire's fleet includes 561 vehicles, consisting of: *109x Volvo B7TLs **79x with Alexander/Transbus ALX400 bodies **15x with Plaxton/Transbus President bodies **15x with Wright Eclipse Gemini bodies *96x Volvo B9TLs with Wright Eclipse Gemini bodies *85x Volvo B10BLEs with Wright Renown bodies (includes 3x driver trainers and many withdrawn) *70x Volvo B7Ls with Wright Eclipse bodies *51x Wright StreetLite Maxes *31x Volvo B7RLEs with Wright Eclipse Urban bodies *29x Dennis Tridents with Plaxton President bodies *17x Wright StreetLite Max Micro Hybrids *15x Alexander Dennis Enviro400s *9x Wright StreetLite DFs *5x Volvo B6BLEs with Wright Crusader 2 bodies *4x Optare Solo M850s *4x Transbus Dart SLFs with Plaxton Pointer 2 bodies *3x Alexander Dennis Enviro200s *3x Volvo B10Ms with Alexander PS bodies (driver trainers) *1x Leyland Titan PD3/4 with Roe body (engineering/converted tow truck) *1x Volvo Olympian with Northern Counties Palatine body *1x Wright StreetDeck Depots *'DONCASTER' - Leger Way, Doncaster, South Yorkshire DN2 6AZ *'OLIVE GROVE' - Olive Grove Road, Sheffield, South Yorkshire S2 3GA *'ROTHERHAM' - Midland Road, Rotherham, South Yorkshire S61 1TF